This title is scheduled to hit PSN in December and rumored to hit next Thursday.

Not much info is available, but it very clearly looks like a tower defense title. If you haven’t played a tower defense game, they are really simple, very addicting, and somewhat mind numbing games. There are several free Flash versions:

These games seem like low hanging fruit: easy to make, very addicting and fun to play, yet mostly unoriginal.

Yet, despite the unoriginal concept, and plethora of free variants on the web, a well done rendition of this type of game would be a real safe crowd pleaser.

Speaking of safe crowd pleasers, why doesn’t PSN offer the staple checkers, chess, and card games that are so popular on Yahoo? Sure, they are already available everywhere, but they are pretty easy to develop and have such a wide appeal.

Anyone else looking forward to this?

Should PSN focus on safe crowd pleasers like this one, or risky and experimental titles, or a mix of the two?

We’ve spent a ton of time talking about games on this site. This post compares different types of video games to their non-video game parallel.

Video Games: Frequency, Amplitude, Guitar Hero, Rock Band
Non-Game Parallel: Playing a real instrument.

Why play with a plastic guitar, when you can practice with a real instrument? I don’t think these are exclusive behaviors at all. I enjoy a little of both. The games are much more forgiving and are easier to play and appreciate, while the real instruments can be far more rewarding when you are in the mood to give them your full concentration. If you do love music games and haven’t touched a real instrument in years, I would definitely recommend giving it a shot.

Non-Game Leisure Activity: Reading a novel
Video Game Parallel: Narrative driven single player experiences such as Grand Theft Auto, Manhunt, or Resident Evil.

I love certain really good narrative driven single player games such as Manhunt or GTA. These seem to fill the exact role in my leisure activities that novels do for other people. They are both linear, solitary, story driven experiences.

Video Games: Brain Training, PQ, and other puzzle Games.
Non-Game Parallel: Crossword puzzles, novelty puzzle books.

The title “Brain Training” implies genuine learning, but it is merely a catchy title for a puzzle game. If you want to really learn something put down the crossword puzzle and the game controller, and go master a new craft, build something new, grow your career skills, or take a challenging course at a local college.

Video Games: Multiplayer Deathmatch titles. A few familiar examples are Resistance, Warhawk, and COD4.
Non-Game Parallel: Playing cards or shooting pool with a group of friends.

Both game and non-game variations of these activities are simple, repetitive, prmarily social experiences. The non-game variants provides more social face to face interaction, while the video games provide more convenience, variety, and technology.

Non-Game Leisure Activity: Exercise. Going to a gym, riding a bike, going for a run, doing laps in a pool, playing on a intramural team, etc.
Video Game Parallel: Wii Fit, Eye Toy Kinetics, DDR games, etc.

These video games are really a novelty at this point. Almost everyone prefers real physical exercise, however the video games are probably appreciated by a small niche audience. DDR is also great fun for kids.

Can you identify any other such parallels? Do any of the above parallels miss the mark? Do you prefer the game or non-game variations? Speak up in the comments.

For the warm-up. Let’s look at this new map pack for Resistance. Two maps (Axebridge and Bracknell) for $5 (minus a penny). Given that the original Resistance had a good number of maps, I won’t begrudge them charging for new maps, though I find the price a little steep. But the maps “will be available via the standard PLAYSTATION Store and not the in-game ‘Purchase’ option”. Why the heck not? Why do we have an in-game purchase option, if we can’t use it? Lame.

New Resistance Map Pack Out Today

Next up, some more vehicles and skins for MotorStorm. You get two new vehicles with three skins each, plus two new skins for the existing seven vehicle classes. Cost? $2 (minus a penny). Frankly, for a game that had not that many vehicles in the first place (and even worse, not many tracks), this is crazy. Why are they charging us for what should have been in the game in the first place? I’m getting tired of this “ship a bare bones product and then nickel and dime them to death for stuff that should have been in there in the first place” mentality! When is this gonna stop? I’ll tell you when! When you stop buying this crap and start complaining about it. I haven’t bought a vehicle pack yet, and I’m not gonna start with this one!

New MotorStorm Vehicles Out Today

Hey all you Guitar Hero freaks out there. I finally picked up Guitar Hero 3 last night, and guess what? It wasn’t for the PS3! It was for the PS2! If you want to know why, and see my impressions of the game, head over to YourRhythmics, where I posted an article about my experiences with Guitar Hero 2 for the PS2.

YourRhythmics - Guitar Hero 3 Impressions